Continuing Stargate

[Shinto-Male]

bump

[Fleet Admiral - Earth]

bump

i've seen this a few times but for the life of me, got no idea what its supposed to mean. care to ellaborate shinto-male.

[Rasunda]

I'm sorry Fleet admiral...

[s09119]

i've seen this a few times but for the life of me, got no idea what its supposed to mean. care to ellaborate shinto-male.

"Bump" means that someone is "bumping" the thread, sending out the news to any subscribers that there's a new post while also making the thread the latest "thread with new post" at the main forum. Basically, it raises viewership and activity.

[Rudy Pena]

Can you hurry up and get to the mid-season finale? Thanks.

[s09119]

15x09 "The Hidden"
Synopsis: An expedition to a former Ancient colony ensnares Jackson and Talbot in a centuries-long battle between isolationism and curiosity unfolding on a far-off world.

Spoiler:

On a tropical planet deep in the Milky Way, designated P4X-816 by the ISGC, an active stargate's puddle shimmers in the bright midday sun. The sound of waves can be heard faintly, indicating a nearby ocean or lake, though the portal itself is located at the edge of a large forest clearing. After a moment, Daniel Jackson and Danielle Talbot walk through the event horizon, sporting traditional offworld gear and carrying P90s raised at the ready. After the disaster that was SG-1's attempt to procure Pandora's Box ("Pandora's Box"), they have apparently taken no chances when visiting Ancient-occupied planets.

As several marines and scientists arrive behind the two, Jackson explains that he has a great feeling about this mission. According to the computer systems on Janus's vessel back at the Beta Site, this planet was one of the last settlements constructed by the Ancients in the galaxy, actually founded after their return from Atlantis. Apparently there was a second sect of Lanteans who, upon coming back to Earth, believed that they could still do good for all life, even in their reduced numbers and lack of infrastructure. They left the others after only a year following their evacuation of Pegasus, and were never heard from again. Janus, however, was obviously able to follow their movements enough to put down their final place of refuge. The best scenario would be that these lost Ancients still want to put their knowledge to use, and hopefully against the Der'kal.

Suddenly, there's a pulse of blinding white light from up ahead, a ways into the forest. Intrigued, Daniel waves his group forward, and they begin advancing into the woods, heading in the direction of the flash. One of the scientists pulls out an Ancient scanner and begins an active sweep of the area for anything of interest. The group is a few hundred meters into the foliage when the analyst holds up a hand and furrows his brow, saying that something's not right about these readings; he's picking up energy signatures identical to those found on Atlantis when the city is primed and operational... but the M.A.L.P. sent to this planet just a few hours ago found nothing but ruins.

Talbot, meanwhile, has been listening to the sound of rustling branches that are faintly echoing in the area. No one else seems to be able to hear it, so she raises her weapon and takes a cautious step away from the others—and steps behind a tree to find herself facing a man in light clothing wielding a Lantean stunner pistol. She scarcely has time to open her mouth before he stuns her, catching her as she falls and gently lowering her to the ground. Then he nods to others, similarly hidden behind him, and then begin to advance on the unsuspecting Tau'ri. The scientist with the scanner just switches it from energy tracing to life-signs detecting when the first blue bolts begin whizzing into the group, taking out the soldiers one by one. Daniel and the remaining scientists can only crouch down and take cover, unable to see the source of the attack except for the flurry of stunner blasts striking from the deep woods.

When only Jackson remains, all others having been successfully incapacitated, he stands, P90 at the ready, and shouts for whoever did this to show themselves, and affirming that they came in peace. The leader of the other group, the one who stunned Talbot, steps out from behind a large rock and says that they guessed as much already, but their innocent intentions do not matter; they came here for a reason, with the means to "expose" everything, and for that, they are guilty. Daniel tries to think of something to say in return, but he gets nowhere before he, too, is taken down by a blast of blue light. The native peoples slowly emerge from their hiding places and walk over to the unconscious humans, with another squad of them rushing off toward the stargate.

Back at the Beta Site, Carter has gathered a group of personnel who had experience with the likes of Khalek ("Prototype") and Rodney McKay when he was near ascension ("Tao of Rodney"). They have made a small, makeshift laboratory inside the mountain, with numerous scanning devices and a pile of items off to one side. Across the room, sitting in a chair and looking somewhat anxious, is Jason Carter. Sam explains to her research team that they want to try and ascertain the extent of her nephew's newfound abilities, in the hope that they can successfully isolate the exact genetic changes that follow from normal human to an Ancient level of physiology. One day, when this war is over and the galaxy can return to science and peace, they may even be able to synthesize a way to advance humanity on the evolutionary scale centuries ahead of time.

For the first test, they need to get a figure on how much brain activity there is during use of telekinesis. Every time they've had the ability to study people with that power, they never manage to get an active reading on it, and Sam isn't taking any chances on missing it this time. She holds up a small metal ball and tells Jason to take it from her. The young man stands and cocks his head, slowly raising his fingertips in the direction of the ball, and a second later, it floats effortlessly from his aunt's hand, hanging lazily in the air. One of the researchers taps in a command onto his laptop, and the "Ascend-o-meter" on Jason's head begins to flash with green light, measuring all matter of brain waves and thought patterns. Sam leans over and looks at the preliminary data, smiling; this might actually work.

On P4X-816, Talbot is just coming to, this time inside what appears to be a Lantean cell not-unlike those on Atlantis. Sitting up and rubbing her head, she looks around and sees no guards outside, and proceeds to try and wake Daniel, who is lying nearby unconscious. The other members of their team are nowhere to be seen, and they have both been stripped of their combat gear and weapons. At length, she's able to wake Jackson, and, startled, he nearly hits her in the face righting himself. Once the two of them have gotten their bearings, Daniel asks where they are, to which Talbot replies that she has no idea, except that this place bears an eerie resemblance to the architecture typical of Pegasus city-ships... something that certainly would seem out of place here in the Milky Way.

After a moment, the door to the prison room opens, and two soldiers enter, still dressed in cream-colored uniforms and carrying Lantean sidearms. Behind them comes a woman who looks to be in her early thirties, dressed in looser-fitting but still Ancient-esque clothing, with her own pistol holstered at her hip. She introduces herself as Devera, the commander of the facility they are currently in, and, ultimately, the person who now holds their fate in her hands. Slowly getting to her feet, Talbot gives her own introduction, explaining that she and her team are representatives of the Free People of Earth, humanity's government-in-exile, but Devera doesn't seem that interested. She holds up a hand and says that, honestly, who they are or where they come from doesn't matter to her, as they have violated her people's highest law simply by remaining on her world. And the penalty is death.

Jackson tries to argue that they don't even know what this law is, so how can they possibly be punished for breaking it? But Devera isn't listening, and she signals to her guards to seal off the cell again as she exits. When Daniel shouts that they only came here to try and find allies against the Der'kal, though, she pauses and turns around to face him, a curious look on her face. Cocking an eyebrow, she asks if he refers to the extragalactic aliens currently conquering the galaxy, to which Daniel nods enthusiastically; they're on the verge of breaking the back of the Alliance and spilling over into the "safe zone" stretching from Dar Eshkalon to Heliopolis, and that would mean the end of the war altogether. For the first time, Devera actually seems interested, but then her version of a radio beeps, and she answers it to hear that she is being ordered to return elsewhere in the facility. Eyeing the Tau'ri prisoners carefully, she tells her guards to let no one else question them until she comes back, then departs.

In the meantime, Jason has finished the round of brain scanning and is patiently waiting for the research team to finish filing away the data they've collected. Sam comes over to him and smiles, clasping him on the shoulder and thanking him for letting them do this. But the younger Carter just shrugs, saying that this is why he modified his own genes, after all. What's the point of going through all those months of resequencing if nothing is to be gained from it? In any event, they're ready for the next step; measuring brain activity during use of telepathy. This test could be the most important of all, as the ability to read minds has possibly the most value to their current situation, and the Tok'ra are practically drooling for the secret.

This is also going to be the easiest of the tests, though, as all Jason needs to do is scan the thoughts of everyone in the room and report on what they're thinking. Each one of them has written a number down on a piece of paper and is concentrating on that, so he just needs to say what everyone's number is successfully to get a good scan. So he begins glancing at one person to another, easily picking up their digits one by one; Sam... 7,993... Researcher with the funny hair... 82... Researcher with the nice butt... 1,305... and so on until he reaches the last one, at whom he frowns, confused. The man (a slightly-overweight scientist in his mid-to-late 30s) is fidgeting nervously, and stray thoughts keep popping up besides his number, which is an obvious 0. Prodding a little deeper, Jason hears something that stuns him, and he stands at once, horrified at whatever he heard. Sam asks what's going on, but Jason just holds up a hand and flings the researcher against the wall, pinning him there with his mind, and shouts that whoever this is, he isn't one of them anymore; he's been leaking intelligence on where Colonel Carter has been launching her strikes for over two months now, and his very next transmission to the Der'kal was going to be the Beta Site's location!

Having left Daniel and Talbot in their cell, meanwhile, Devera is making her way through the clearly-Lantean halls of her people's facility, and eventually enters what would appear to be the control room of a city-ship, confirming Talbot's earlier guess about their whereabouts. Numerous personnel man the many consoles, going about their daily business, though this nerve center, unlike the one on Atlantis, lacks a stargate in the lower-set area. Standing at the balcony is an older man, noticeably not wearing one of the Ancient-style uniforms of many of the others. This is Mithras, the military commander of the people here, contrary to Devera, who herself seems to identify much more with humanitarian needs. The old soldier turns at length and asks what the visitors came here for, and Devera explains that they claim to have come seeking allies against the alien invaders, who are apparently known as the "Der'kal."

(First part of "The Hidden," see next two posts for more.)

[s09119]

(Second part of "The Hidden," see previous post for beginning and next post for conclusion.)

Spoiler:

Most interestingly, perhaps, they claim to be from Earth, the ancient capital of the Lanteans while they resided in this galaxy. But by their own admission, their homeworld fell to the invasion fleet over a year ago, and they can scarcely be said to represent the Ancients's ancestors as a whole. Mithras dismisses them entirely, muttering that whether or not they come from there changes nothing; they are not the Ancients themselves, and therefore they have no bearing on how things should be done here. This suggests that the people of P4X-816 are nothing more than humans who found the city the way it was and came to live there, learning how to operate the technology along the way. Contrary to her counterpart, though, Devera believes that maybe they should at least show them "the Safeguard," as perhaps they could duplicate the device to help protect the galaxy. Haven't they spent enough countless centuries hiding on this planet and watching as evil race after evil race slaughters and conquers everything around them?

At that, Mithras's eyes turn to slits, and he shouts for two of his soldiers to grab Devera and hold her. She doesn't resist as they take each of her arms and remove her pistol, and calmly stares at her superior with a look of annoyance. Stating that she did not break the First Directive, only questioned it, she insists that she has done nothing illegal and asks to be let go. Mithras waves a hand impatiently, and the solders release her and return her sidearm. Nonetheless, he orders Devera to be careful with this path she is walking; they have not spent these long years protecting the secrets of this planet only to let it all be for naught because some offworlders come crying with a sob story for them. Holstering her pistol angrily, Devera retorts that at least they're doing something with their lives and walks out.

Back in their cell, Daniel and Talbot are playing "I Spy" to pass the time, though the only colors around are blue and gray, and the game is quickly becoming a bore. After a moment, Devera enters and punches in the code to open the cage, stepping inside and motioning for her soldiers to stand guard. Standing, Jackson asks if they're going to be let go now, to which their captor replies that it looks unlikely. Sighing, she calms herself and starts from the beginning:

When the people known as the Lanteans first came here, they found her people already living under the heel of a somewhat-crazed Goa'uld by the name of Erra, who had discovered the millions-of-years-old remnants of the Ancient city that had once dominated the planet. The Lantean rogues, angered that their once-glorious metropolis was being defiled by a parasite, destroyed him and his fleet with only a few gateships, then came down and settled alongside the humans. Although they were primitive, the human population was intuitive and intelligent, and the Lanteans intermixed with them without issue, crafting a civilization around the derelict city-ship that had lain here unused for eons. Eventually, they told them the story of this star system, and what made it so valuable that they would fight for it; long, long ago, when they had just arrived in the Milky Way, the Ancients were attacked by a bloodlusting race with dreams of conquest called the Haaken, an extremely-advanced group that rivaled even them in sheer power.

After a long and terrible war, the Ancients finally drove them back to their homeworld, the fourth planet in this system (P4X-816 being the third), and soundly defeated their fleet in orbit. But they were incapable of delivering the killing blow and exterminating their enemy for all eternity, remembering all too well what the Ori would do in such a case. So instead, they decided on another way to ensure that the Haaken would never again threaten life, and activated a time-dilation field that enveloped their world, trapping them inside, and set up an observation post on P4X-816 to watch over them. Should the Haaken ever by some miracle emerge, the Ancients would be right there to do it all over again, and thus they could protect the galaxy without needing to wipe out a sentient species.

For every thousand years that pass on the outside, only a single minute is passing inside the field. It will take the Haaken millennia more to shut off the device, but the Lantean rogues decided that they would continue the watch regardless, in some small effort to make up for their failure in Pegasus. Over the years, though, the vast knowledge the people here once had has been lost, and so the humans that remain on P4X-816 are unable to fulfill the mission set down by their forefathers. Either way, though, they are determined to keep trying, and they monitor the Ancient sensors around the time-dilated planet daily. And roughly five-hundred years ago, out of nowhere, an Ancient arrived through the stargate, bringing with him plans for a great machine he called "the Safeguard," which would make certain that the outpost here would survive through the ages. He built it deep underneath the city-ship, and the humans have taken care of it ever since. Unfortunately, its use has created an unintended side-effect; now armed with the means to close themselves off from the turmoil of the galaxy, the people have grown isolationist to the point of madness, killing anyone who visits their world for fear of them exposing the secret of their existence. Mithras is the worst of them all, once having ordered the deaths of over a thousand refugees during the time of the Goa'uld simply because they came through the stargate.

Jackson nods, though he's still somewhat confused as to how, exactly, they remain hidden. Devera, biting her lip, offers to show him and Talbot, despite her orders not to. She, unlike the others, believes that this game of secrecy is pointless, especially when they have the means to protect so many others in the safety of their city. And so she and her soldiers quietly escort the two Tau'ri out of their cell and out a side door, hoping to avoid notice as they flee the prison block.

Across the galaxy, at the Beta Site, Sam, O'Neill, and Jason stare down into their own prison block at the researcher the latter named a traitor to their cause. Jack asks how they could have missed this, as they monitor all messages coming and going offworld at all times, so a Der'kal spy seems almost impossible. Sam's guess is that the aliens caught the researcher on another planet while he was doing research after the Fall of Earth and gave him a transmitter which would bypass their scans. After all, they have all of humanity's communications equipment to study at their leisure, it's not like it would be that difficult. The question remains, though, as to why he did it... and more interestingly, why he didn't give away their location already.

Outside the cell, Colonel Taylor is questioning the researcher, asking just that query. The frightened scientist explains that they claimed to already know the Beta Site's location, and promised that if he kept them informed of Colonel Carter's target locations, they wouldn't come and destroy it just yet. He knows it sounds ridiculous, but at the time he was so scared he just agreed to do what they wanted. The only thing that saved Sam time and again was probably the sheer strength of the Jupiter, which the aliens have obviously underestimated. Just a few weeks ago, after hearing of human successes across the battle lines ("Power Play"), they revealed that they did not, in fact, have the Site's position, but that if he did not turn it over, they would begin blasting every square inch of Earth's surface until he transmitted it. Fearing for the billions back home, he agreed, but hasn't sent the message yet.

Listening, Jack thinks it's unlikely that they'll actually bombard the planet again, as it's dotted with factories and shipyards for their armada now ("Earthfall"), and they wouldn't want to blow those up along with humans. All in all, this could have been a much worse breach of security, and they're lucky Sam chose the team she did to help out with the test of Jason's abilities; this could have been disastrous otherwise. Upon hearing that, the young Carter grins, turning to his aunt and saying that he has an idea to make this little twist even better.

Light-years away on P4X-816, Devera, her two guards, and Daniel and Talbot step out of a transporter deep within the city-ship. There are hardly any personnel walking about here, and it is easy to simply step into an alcove whenever anyone walks by to hide the presence of offworlders. Devera leads the group down a tunnel only somewhat-Ancient-looking in design, indicating that it was probably tacked on after the humans begin to lose the knowledge of their ancestors. She explains that the Safeguard was hidden down here so that, should anyone manage to find their people, it would be safe from any sort of orbital attack. And after a few more minutes of walking, they turn into a massive chamber, with a scaled-up version of a device seen years before sitting in a pit before them. If anything, this "Safeguard" is an early attempt at building a phase-shift device, meaning that the Ancient who gave it to the humans here must have been Merlin!

Amazed, Talbot shouts that this is an incredible find. Turning to Devera, she says that having something like this on their side could turn the tide of war for good, allowing the Alliance to literally appear out of nowhere and decimate Der'kal forces. They could reclaim Earth, liberate worlds like Ankgor and Hebridan, and end this fighting for good. That explains the flash of white light the Tau'ri expedition saw when they first arrived; it was the city coming back into their own dimension so that they could be captured and brought inside.

But the revelation is cut short by the sudden arrival of soldiers pouring down the ramp from higher up, led by an infuriated Mithras. As his men disarm the group, he asks Devera how stupid she thinks he is, as they can clearly track their position using the sensors of the city itself. And now that she has truly shattered the First Directive, he can finally execute her and remove this thorn in his side for good, protecting the purity of his people and their isolated haven once and for all.

Before anyone does anyone else, though, one of the soldiers pulls out a Lantean scanner and gazes in amazement at Daniel, saying that he's an Ancient! Mithras, unbelieving, looks at the device itself and cannot understand when he sees that it does, in fact, identify Jackson as one of the gatebuilders. In the confusion, Devera asks how that's possible, and Talbot whispers to her that Daniel was once ascended, making him as close as anyone on the planet, more than likely. Seizing on this and thinking hard on how these people think, Jackson says that he was indeed one of the Ancients, and he demands that he and his people be let go in the name of the mission that was set down for P4X-816.

But Mithras won't hear of it, and he screams for his men to kill him, Talbot, and Devera where they stand. For a long moment, no one moves... but then the soldiers turn on their commander and open fire, gunning him down where he stands. The two Tau'ri shrink back in a strange sort of relieved horror, as Devera looks on coldly, explaining that, as always, "blasphemy must be met with death," and in this case, the blasphemy was ordering the death of an Ancient. Irony in its purest form, to be sure.

[s09119]

(End of "The Hidden," see previous two posts for start.)

Spoiler:

At the Beta Site, things are going as usual in the gate room when an unscheduled offworld activation comes in. The defense team steps up for action, but they stand down when Daniel, Talbot, and their expedition team come running through, breathless and rearmed with their gear. As the portal shuts down, the technician on duty asks where they've been for hours, and Jackson just shakes his head, muttering that they've had one Hell of a day.

Some time later, the entire command staff meets in the mess hall as the offworld team gulps down some hot food. Talbot is just explaining to the others that after Mithras was killed, Devera arranged for them to be brought to the gate via gateship, before anyone could find out what happened in the Safeguard's chamber. The "blasphemy" of trying to kill an "Ancient" would sway the soldiers that saw, but no one else would dare break from their sacred duty to never allow their existence to be reported. Most likely, Devera herself has been executed, as there's no way the people of P4X-816 could have missed the stargate activation, but if she did die, at least she did it doing what she believed in. All attempts to dial the planet have failed since then, and O'Neill guesses that the gate has either been buried or brought inside the phase-shift field. No more attempts to raise contact will be made, and for the time being, at least, they will respect the wishes of these warped but proud people to remain, as they will be called, "the Hidden."

Sipping on a mug of coffee, Daniel asks what's been going on here while they were away, and Sam explains that the tests they were running on Jason's physiology yielded an unexpected surprise, and they have a nice little party about to start on the other end of the galactic plane. And indeed, in the middle of space nowhere near any Alliance planets, a massive Jaffa/Nox/Tok'ra fleet waits in a semi-circle. A moment later, lured by a transmission from the area indicating that this was the Beta Site's location, over a dozen Der'kal ships lurch out of hyperspace, pummeled into dust almost immediately by the Alliance forces before their shields can be raised. They may not have gained a weapon to turn the tide of war this day, but the fight will rage on nonetheless, to the day when peace can, at last, return...

[Jaffa Teal'c]

another good story.

[Dark lord me]

Great job too bad though we could do with a city ship or a phase shifting device.

[Crazy Tom]

Nice way of tying up The Alliance storiline.

[s09119]

Nice way of tying up The Alliance storiline.

Well I always wished the game got made so I thought it'd be nice to nod to it

[Rudy Pena]

good ep.

[SG-18]

I liked this alot. There is still story left for the hidden or not, very good episode. Felt like a real Stargate episode! NIce tie-in of the ascension of Jackson too!

[Dr. Daedalus]

As always nice work s09.

Dr. Daedalus